Killing

"Pfft!"

A mouthful of pitch-black blood splattered onto the brown earth. Uchiha Shisui's back leaned against a thick tree trunk, while black, poisoned blood slowly trickled from the wound at his shoulder blade.

Uchiha Shisui gritted his teeth as he looked at the wound left by the Wind Release poison needle. He forced himself to his feet. To conserve what little Chakra he had left, he had already deactivated his Sharingan.

Wind Release, Senbon, and extremely potent poison—all of it pointed to a Ninja from Sunagakure. However, unlike what one would expect, his opponent had not used a puppet.

After all, carrying a huge puppet into battle would make far too much noise for an assassination unit.

Yet Uchiha Shisui, who had already crossed the border of the Land of Wind, completely refused to believe that his opponent was from Sunagakure. The enemy understood too much about how to fight the Sharingan.

In particular, the poison his opponent had concocted was suppressing his Chakra and leaving him mentally listless, making it impossible for him to keep his Sharingan active for long.

Had the village already grown this wary of the Uchiha? Or was someone else behind this? Several faces flashed through Uchiha Shisui's mind, and sorrow welled up in his heart.

In the end, his thoughts settled on a corpse-like face wrapped in bandages. The first time that man had seen him, the flame of greed in his eyes had seemed ready to burn him to ashes.

"Make it back alive!" Clinging to that belief, Uchiha Shisui pushed his speed a notch higher and temporarily shook off his pursuers.

Not far behind him, four masked Sunagakure Ninjas were pursuing him at full speed. All of them had suffered varying degrees of injury, especially the Ninja wearing the wolf mask, who had lost an arm outright.

"Wolf, are you still all right? We still need your secret technique to extract the Sharingan. If you can't keep going, rest for a while," said the Ninja wearing the tiger mask at the front, turning back to advise him.

"No. I'm going to remove his eyes at the first opportunity. The poison in his system means he can't run much farther." A vicious voice came from behind the brown mask.

Seeing the injuries suffered by the four of them, even Feng Tiger couldn't help cursing inwardly, despite having undergone the most brutal training without ever showing it on his face.

Four Jonin and one Special Jonin had ambushed him, only for him to kill one Jonin in return and cut off the Special Jonin's arm.

Although, to frame Sunagakure, all five of them were merely Wind Release Ninjas without a Kekkei Genkai, their opponent was only a young Ninja who had risen to Jonin through relying on his Sharingan.

At that thought, the four of them sped up and continued their pursuit.

At this critical moment, however, Uchiha Shisui, who was fleeing, hesitated. He thought of the Ninja squad coming to rendezvous with him.

There was one Special Jonin and three Genin. If he led the enemies to them, they would probably suffer the same fate.

With that thought, Uchiha Shisui slowed down. He was just about to turn toward another location when a powerful gust of wind suddenly came from ahead.

He raised a hand to block it, only to see that it was a Kunai with a note wrapped around its handle.

Before long, the four Ninjas behind him caught up. Their target, staggering ahead, was running toward the forest, but at an extremely slow pace.

"I'll take your eyes," Feng Tiger snarled. The hot-tempered man lunged at his opponent's back, rapidly forming Hand Seals as both cheeks swelled high. He was about to cast a Ninjutsu.

"Wind Release—"

"Boom—!"

The enormous explosion engulfed the four men present. The blasts continued one after another, utterly destroying the surrounding trees.

A few seconds later, Feng Tiger, his chest blown into a bloody mess, leaped out of the flames with Feng Wolf, whose legs had been crippled.

His feet stumbled the instant he landed, and he nearly fell. Whoever had planted the Explosive Tags had been extremely sinister, forcing them to take the full brunt of the damage.

Before he could react, a hand seized his ankle and tried to drag him into the ground. In desperation, he kicked the attacker out.

Feng Tiger looked at Senba's youthful face. So he was only a Genin—no wonder his strength was so weak! Supporting Feng Wolf with one hand, he used the other to block the ambush from behind by Genma Shiranui.

At that moment, the other two Jonin also flew out of the flames and pounced toward Uchiha Shisui in the forest. Something unexpected had happened, but everything was still under control.

With that thought, he shifted sideways. He was not skilled at forming Hand Seals with one hand, and he could not throw away Feng Wolf, who specialized in secret techniques, so he planned to hold his opponent here.

Just as the poison needles from his sleeve struck Genma Shiranui, a puff of smoke flashed, and a dead branch fell to the ground.

"Substitution Technique! Did he go after Feng Snake and the others?"

Feng Tiger saw Genma Shiranui appear beside Uchiha Shisui and was about to rush over when the white-haired brat from before charged at him with a punch.

Feng Tiger did not take it seriously. He raised an arm to block. A Ninja like this could not even interest him.

"Super Strength Fist!"

Senba made no unnecessary movements. He simply raised his hand and unleashed a Super Strength Fist. Chakra wrapped around his body, channeling tremendous force into a solid blow against Feng Tiger's arm.

The sound of breaking bones rang out. At the same time, Senba's fist smashed into the man's chest. A first-meeting kill only happened when there was insufficient information.

"Ninjutsu: Needle Jizo!"

Senba's white hair lengthened and spread out before him, blocking the Kunai thrust by Feng Wolf, who had awakened at some point.

Then the white hair wrapped tightly around Feng Wolf's arm, and countless spikes suddenly stabbed out from within!

Senba yanked with all his strength, forcibly tearing off Feng Wolf's only remaining arm.

Feng Wolf's shrill scream alerted the four people in the distance. Only then did Uchiha Shisui, with a small Slug clinging to his shoulder, realize that Senba excelled at more than just Taijutsu.

"Strength... needles... really... you... you...!"

At death's door, Feng Wolf stared wide-eyed at Senba. He had never imagined that he would die at the hands of a Genin. Were the village's Genin all this powerful now?

Ignoring Feng Wolf's unwillingness in his final moments, Senba rapidly formed Hand Seals and spat a huge mass of wind upward.

"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"

A massive tornado raged across the sky and earth, blocking the two Root members trying to leave. Already seriously injured, the two had no choice but to retreat.

Root did not fear death, but they had to bring the intelligence back—especially the information about that white-haired brat. Even if they returned, they would likely be killed for failing the mission.

At that thought, the two exchanged a glance. One of them then charged rapidly toward Senba while swiftly forming Hand Seals, as the other ran into the distance.

Seeing this, Genma Shiranui naturally went to help Senba, while Uchiha Shisui, who had recovered most of his strength after treatment, moved to intercept the fleeing man.

These people had to die here today. Otherwise, they would certainly bring enormous trouble upon them.

Another tremendous battle erupted. Wind, earth, and fire Ninjutsu flew chaotically through the air. In the end, these two heavily wounded Jonin still managed to inflict grievous injuries on the three of them before dying.

After the small Slug's acidic fluids destroyed the enemies' bodies and erased all traces of them, Genma Shiranui endured the pain and released a signal. Only then did he relax and look toward the two young men lying nearby, gasping for breath.

So this was what a genius was.